Friday, 27 March 2015

“Monsanto Co, maker of the world’s most widely-used herbicide, Roundup, wants an international health organization to retract a report linking the chief ingredient in Roundup to cancer.
The company said on Tuesday that the report, issued on Friday by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), was biased and contradicts regulatory findings that the ingredient, glyphosate, is safe when used as labeled.”
— Carey Gillam, The Globe and MailRead more…

“[…] In the fallout, Monsanto has gone on the offensive, issuing press releases and rallying their army of well-paid lobbyists in the hopes of killing the story.
In a clip released in anticipation of an upcoming french documentary about Monsanto, a flack hired by Monsanto to argue that the active ingredient in its Roundup weed killer products is harmless towards people is put on the spot. After towing the official line that Roundup is not raising the cancer rates in areas where it is used heavily, one such lobbyist Dr. Patrick Moore swore that Roundup was so safe that he would drink it and nothing would happen, leading to an amazing exchange between the interviewer and an increasingly frantic Moore.”
— Jameson Parker, Addicting InfoRead more…

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

“Fish know all about your grimy excretions. They have to live with what you flush down the toilet every day, after all. And the unluckiest ones have an even closer relationship with you, depending on what medicines you take, where you are, and what part of the year it is.
Our understanding of pharmaceutical pollution begins nearly 20 years ago, when ecologist JP Sumpter ​discovered something surprising: unusually high numbers of feminized fish—egg-producing males with ovaries—were swimming in English rivers. When Sumpter and colleagues tested the water, they found something even stranger: estrogen from human birth control pills. […]
With no formal regulation in the works in the US, local governments are encouraging citizens to change what they do with unwanted drugs. Some states and cities are teaching people to ​bring their unused pills to special collection programs so they be disposed of as solid waste, instead of being flushed down toilets and ending up in waterways. That won’t eliminate the problem, however, because ​most drugs are excreted into wastewater, not flushed away in pill form.”
— Nicole Lou, motherboardRead more…

“Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques —structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.
If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques. […]
Publishing in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s.”
— science alertRead more…

“The wine world is buzzing about a new machine that claims to be able to age cheap, young wines using the power of ultrasonic energy in as little as 20 minutes.
It’s called the ‘Sonic Decanter,’ a countertop machine that uses ultrasonic energy to simulate the aging process by transforming the wine’s molecular and chemical structure with the touch of a button.
In gadget parlance, you could call it a set-it-and-forget-it type appliance.
After 20 minutes, the cheap bottle of young red wine will be 'reinvigorated,' claims creator Michael Coyne of Seattle, Washington, transforming the liquid into a more ‘homogenous’ wine that will improve the taste, aroma and mouthfeel.
At the end of the process, aromas not normally present in young, unaged wines will be developed, tannins softened and flavors enhanced, makers promise.
It can also be used to bring previously opened bottles of wine back to life.”
— yahoo!Read more…

“The United States’ neighbors to the north sent the Texas senator [Ted Cruz] a certificate a few days ago [June, 2014] showing he has renounced his citizenship in Canada — nearly 10 months after he said he would do so.
Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, had learned from The Dallas Morning News that he also became a citizen of Canada 'the moment he was born' in Calgary to an American mother. He gave the news first to the DMN, as promised.
'The senator is pleased to have this process finalized,' Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told USA TODAY.
The question of Cruz’s citizenship was potentially a problem as he visited early presidential states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — prompting headlines about a possible 2016 bid.
The U.S. Constitution states only a 'natural born' citizen can be president, and that has been interpreted over the years to include Americans born overseas to an American parent — such as George Romney, born in Mexico to Mormon missionaries.”
— Catalina Camia, ONPOLITICSRead more…

“The process of rejecting the maple leaf forever requires four pages of paperwork and a $100 fee.
Being born somewhere other than in the physical United States did not bar the presidential candidacy of George Romney, Mitt Romney’s Mexican-born father, whose grandparents moved from Utah to Mexico in the 19th century because of a crackdown on polygamists. Barry Goldwater was born in the Arizona Territory, before there was a state of Arizona. John McCain was born to a military couple serving in the Panama Canal.
[US] Liberal pundits are already gleeful about Cruz’s Canadian birth. Barack Obama, who was incontrovertibly born in Hawaii, the 50th state, has been bedeviled by obsessive 'birthers' who claim he can’t be a natural-born citizen, as the Constitution requires of presidents, because his father was not an American citizen. These are the same people who paradoxically complain that citizenship is automatically conferred on 'anchor babies' — their term for children born on U.S. soil to Mexican women who enter this country illegally.”
— Patt Morrison, Los Angeles TimesRead more…

“[…] These people [millionaires] are feeling slighted because they aren't rich enough to gain the attention of politicians. Welcome to the world the rest of us inhabit, friends. But perhaps they need to ask themselves why they are treating these people as if they're royalty or demi-Gods in the first place. This is supposed to be a democracy and politicians are supposed to be seeking the approval of the citizens. Instead we have citizens seeking approval from the politicians and the politicians seeking approval from the ultra-wealthy. Something isn't quite right.
Still, you have to feel sorry for them for this terrible loss of status. It's gotta hurt to be a millionaire member of the upper five percent, used to being treated with deference by the servant class (the rest of us) and suddenly find yourself tossed aside as just another useless poor person. The answer to this dilemma --- the answer they would certainly give to any of the sad middle class and working class people who would ask this question is --- must be to 'work harder' and become a billionaire themselves. Isn't it the case that rising to the top is just a matter of having a good work ethic? And if you fail, it's because you just don't put the kind of effort into it that billionaires do? That's what I always heard anyway.
Come on, millionaires, buck up. Anyone can become a billionaire if they really try. This is America. You only have yourself to blame if you just don't have enough money to make a politician care what you have to say.”
— digby, HullabalooRead more…